I started this 52-books-a-year challenge at the beginning of 2006, so here is a list of the books I read that year. You’ll notice that there are quite a few crime novels (I had heard about the explosion of Eurocrime and had previously read all of Henning Mankell’s Inspector Wallender series, but I had a bit of catching up to do) and also a strong showing by American authors. That was one of those themes that just emerged. In 2005 I was introduced to Philip Roth via The Human Stain. I’d also come across Paul Auster through a collection of stories he published, all of which had come from ‘ordinary’ Americans as part of a radio project he’d run, so I was curious to read some of his fiction. I hadn’t read much American fiction before, having read mainly British and European writers, but they feature heavily in the 2006 list. I was also lent a copy of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and loved it so much that I immediately went and read all his others. That’s the way it happens sometimes.